Adam Mitchell
Adam Mitchell was a young English researcher in the employ of the American GeoComTex billionaire Henry van Statten in the year 2012. He was briefly a companion to the Ninth Doctor.
Regrettably, on his one and only trip aboard the Doctor's TARDIS, Adam disgraced himself as a companion due to filching information and technology from the future with intent to alter the present, and the Doctor immediately spurned Adam from accompanying him any further. After being abandoned by him, however, he later plotted to kidnap companions from every incarnation of the Doctor.
Biography
Meeting the Doctor
Adam was a genius who had successfully hacked into the United States Department of Defense computers when he was eight years old, nearly causing, in his own words, World War III. He was recruited by van Statten to work for GeoComTex. The Ninth Doctor and Rose Tyler met Adam in the year 2012. At the time he worked in van Statten's Vault in Utah, where he catalogued extraterrestrial artefacts for his employer. When the Dalek van Statten had "collected" got loose and went on a rampage, Adam found himself running from it with Rose. He told Rose that he had always wanted to see the stars; she asked the Doctor to take Adam along with them in the TARDIS. Rose also found Adam attractive. Despite the Doctor's scepticism about Adam as a potential fellow traveller, he agreed. (TV: Dalek)
Adam's travels with the Doctor and Rose did not last long. Visiting the year 200,000, Adam was overwhelmed by the wealth of information and technology available to him and immediately gave in to temptation and greed. Desperate to gain all the information that the Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire had collected, he learned that only those with an implant could access the data. He had a top-of-the-line computer interface port, an infospike, installed in his head. When the implant activated to access computers, his head opened up, revealing part of his brain. The implant was activated by a snap of the fingers. He tried to transmit information back to 21st century Earth with Rose's superphone.
When Adam tapped into the computer systems, he inadvertently gave the Jagrafess knowledge of — and nearly access to — the TARDIS. One of Satellite Five's journalists, Cathica, freed Adam, prevented the Jagrafess from obtaining the TARDIS key and vented heat to Floor 500, killing it. Learning of Adam's transmission of information and his additional breach of trust, the Doctor angrily returned Adam to his home, despite Adam's apologetic pleading. The Doctor destroyed the answering machine which had received the information from the future. He observed that Adam would have to live a quiet life, lest someone discover the implant in his head and dissect him to find out where it came from. After the Doctor and Rose left, Adam was met by his mother who, when talking to him, clicked her fingers. As his head opened up, a look of shock and horror appeared on her face. (TV: The Long Game)
At some point, Adam was taken to the Black Archive by UNIT to have his record as a companion of the Doctor taken. His memories of the visit were subsequently erased and he was sent on his way. (TV: The Day of the Doctor)
Revenge
Adam's mother died shortly after the Doctor left Adam on Earth, and Adam became angry at the Doctor for erasing the technology that could have saved her. Adam spent years doing nothing with his life, seeing the Doctor and Rose pop up throughout history without him. He eventually decided to use the technology in his head to steal from corporate accounts, giving him the means to have his revenge. Adam excavated Van Statten's vault, and used Cyberman technology to lure out a Time Agent and steal his vortex manipulator, giving him access to time travel. Adam searched the universe for various enemies of the Doctor that he could use against him in his battles. One of the first he found was the Tremas Master, whose evil he underestimated. Adam then set out to capture the companions of all the known incarnations of the Doctor. He used memory distortion to prevent the Doctor from remembering him, but this grew weaker as he came closer and closer to the Doctor who had betrayed him.
Working with the Animus and the Zarbi, he was successful in capturing the First Doctor's companions Barbara Wright, Ian Chesterton and Vicki Pallister. Manipulating a T-Mat machine, he captured the Second Doctor's companions Jamie McCrimmon and Zoe Heriot. Using a vortex manipulator, he appeared in front of the Third Doctor, grabbed the Doctor's companions Liz Shaw, Sarah Jane Smith and the Brigadier and teleported away. Once again using the vortex manipulator, he appeared in front of the Fourth Doctor and kidnapped Leela and K9 Mark II.
Using the vortex manipulator, he appeared in front of the Fifth Doctor and kidnapped Tegan, Nyssa, and Adric. However, the Doctor was at that point able to remember the other times he'd met Adam. Working with the Master, he then kidnapped Peri from the Sixth Doctor. However, this was a trap set up by the Tenth Doctor. Instead of kidnapping Peri, Adam had kidnapped Frobisher, who quickly used his shape-shifting abilities to escape his confinement. The Seventh Doctor encountered the Master and defeated him, but, as he said his goodbyes and watched the Master run, Adam captured Ace. The Eighth Doctor anticipated Adam's arrival, but was helpless to prevent Grace Holloway from being kidnapped.
He met the Ninth Doctor and finally revealed his true identity, kidnapping Rose in the process. The Tenth Doctor realised Adam's presence the moment he arrived, but couldn't prevent him from kidnapping Martha. Adam then quickly attacked the Eleventh Doctor and kidnapped Clara.
The Eleventh Doctor found Adam had taken all the alien technology from Van Statten's vault. He found the Time Agent Adam captured and gained the means to track Adam's Vortex Manipulator. He got to Adam's Fortress in Limbo and found all his companions in stasis. Adam then threatened to kill all the Doctor's companions, saying the Doctor could only save one.
It was then that a mixed form of various TARDISes from each Doctor materialised, out of which appeared the other ten Doctors. Under the orders of the Master, Adam released an army of Autons at them. Frobisher, meanwhile, released all of the Doctor's companions, all of which began attacking the Autons.
The Master then revealed the Auton attack as a distraction, as he blasted the rest of the chronal energy he had drained into the Doctor's TARDISes. This would cause all of them to overload: destroying all of them and the Doctors at the same time and thus destroying the universe as well. Adam, deciding that he did not want the Universe destroyed, fought back against the Master: eventually destroying the computer in an explosion that engulfed him. The other Doctors forgave his crimes as he died and buried him outside his time palace, with the inscriptions "Adam Mitchell, A Companion True." (COMIC: Prisoners of Time)
Behind the scenes
Companion status
The "disregarded companion", Adam Mitchell, is the only companion from the revived series up to that time not included in Journey's End, the finale to Series 4 of Doctor Who.
Adam is also the only companion to be kicked off the TARDIS just one episode after joining the Doctor. Adam is the only known companion to be actually expelled from the TARDIS crew for bad behaviour. However, Rose nearly became the second companion to do so in Father's Day, as did Amy Pond in The Beast Below.
Adam is one of two companions, the other being Harry Sullivan, who had no scenes in the TARDIS interior. He is seen entering and emerging from the TARDIS several times, but he is never seen within the TARDIS itself.
Peculiarly, Adam is the first companion in the BBC Wales version of Doctor Who to be unambiguously killed off in a medium other than the one he was first introduced in; namely, televised stories. Furthermore, with his death and final sacrifice, he is vindicated and recognised as a companion by the Doctor.
Other matters
- In 2005, the website "Who is Doctor Who?" announced that 14-year-old Adam Mitchell had won a competition arranged by van Statten the previous week. Adam's winning essay on "Why I Want To Meet An Alien" focused on acquiring advanced knowledge from them ("I don't think it's cheating, really. It's just a shortcut"), foreshadowing both his work for van Statten and his actions later.
- In the online game The Last Dalek, which presents an alternate version of the events of Dalek, Adam does not appear, but he has an entry in the Dalek's memory files. He is described as "Male subject. Age 20. English. Intelligent and enthusiastic student helping Van Statten acquire rare artefacts. Considered no threat."
- In an earlier draft of Dalek, Adam was the son of Henry van Statten.
- In an earlier draft of The Long Game, Adam bought future medicines to help his dying father (who was not Henry van Statten). This idea was later tweaked and recycled for Prisoners of Time.
- The Pete's World counterpart of Adam Mitchell was planned to appear in the scrapped Rose Tyler: Earth Defence spin-off.
External links
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- wholikedoctorwho
